1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to biometric identification such as fingerprint verification. More particularly, the invention relates to a system for on chip verification and consequent enablement of card OS operation using smart cards.
2. Description of the Background
Smart cards are usually, although not necessarily, the size of a standard credit card, but contain some form of electrical circuitry, usually in the form of one or more integrated circuits (ICs). Simple smart cards may function only as a memory, but more complex ones include a Central Processing Unit (CPU), so as to be able to process data in various ways. This processing is often limited to controlling access to the memory in some way or other, to prevent unauthorized changes to the data stored there.
An example of a smart card is shown in FIG. 4, which shows a card 490 including a CPU 400 with a card operating system 410 and contacts 430 to connect to external readers and biometric sensors, for example.
Various operating systems have been implemented in smart cards having a CPU. Early smart card operating systems were dedicated to a single application for using the card, whereas later operating systems have been developed for multiple applications, and Java cards have also been developed, in which the Java operating system is employed so that applications could be portable between cards.
Smart cards have been used as credit cards, charge cards, and debit cards, as well as for access to mass transit and parking, to store health records, as identity badges, and for secure access to a Local Area Network (LAN), as well as in cellular phones and cable TV set-top boxes, amongst other applications. However, to date there has not been a viable commercial application of on card verification of a cardholder using biometrics such as a fingerprint. Present identity verification schemes generally either rely upon cryptography, or rely upon biometric identity verification that does not take place on the card itself.
Operating systems from commercial vendors such as Giesecke & Devrient GmbH (G&D) exist which have on-chip fingerprint matching, but an off-card reader scans the fingerprint. There are also companies such as Fidelica Microsystems, Inc. that provide on chip finger print sensors and verification but they use a proprietary, experimental OS and not a commercial grade publicly available OS.